Citizen Times: Opinion: the race to execute fills N.C. Death Row

“These cases do not “prove” intentional racial bias in North Carolina’s death penalty system; in fact, some of the racial disparities demonstrated in the state may not even arise from intentional discrimination. Common sense alone suggests that since nearly all prosecutors in death penalty states are white, and since blacks are underrepresented as jurors, prosecutors and jurors may simply better identify with white murder victims, especially when they are killed by minorities whom the media depict as more dangerous. This might explain why states since 1976 have executed 243 black killers of whites but only 15 white killers of blacks. It might also explain why, since 1999 in North Carolina, the state has executed six blacks for killing whites and zero whites for killing blacks.”

“Matthew Robinson is professor of government and justice studies at Appalachian State University in Boone. He teaches and does research on capital punishment and is author of “Death Nation: The Experts Explain American Capital Punishment.”